1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices for removing temporary blockages from toilet, sink and lavatory drains, and more particularly to devices utilizing household water pressure for such purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Previous devices for removing drain blockages have employed household water pressure to force material blocking the drain on through the drain to soil pipelines. These devices generally provide a flexible hose attachable at one end to a faucet or other source of household water under pressure. The other end of the hose is provided with a bell-shaped "plumber's helper" type of device capable of imparting pressure surges to the contents of the drain when forcibly pushed downwardly against the drain outlet and released. Representative of these approaches are the following patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Name of Patentee ______________________________________ 1,110,715 D. J. Reese 2,500,404 T. S. Donnelly 2,535,092 F. S. Rettinger ______________________________________
Typically, these patents contemplate use of water pressure only to clear the drains, with the water being confined to the drain area by the bell shaped resilient plumber's helper devices. Moreover, each of these devices rely on the household faucets, to which they are connectible, to turn the water on and off.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,380 to Frank Schuster provides a valve at the plumber's helper for turning the water on and off independently of the household faucet to which the supply hose is attached. Ths position of this valve forces the user to immerse his hand in the backed up sewage.
Another approach is to replace the flexible, bell-shaped plumber's helper with a solid closing member having a gasket intended to effect a seal between the closing member and the area of the household appliance surrounding the drain opening. Such structure is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 1,395,125 to W. E. D. Lewis, et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,539 to S. Li provides a rounded resilient block of material around the lower end of a water injection tube, intended to seal the tube to the drain, and has a plunger valve at its upper end for controlling flow of water through the tube.